Philip Franchini, Jr.[7] or Philip Franchina[8] (born December 1, 1985), better known by his stage namePhilip DeFranco, his YouTube username "sxephil", or his online alias "PhillyD", is an American video blogger and YouTube celebrity. He is most notable for The Philip DeFranco Show, usually abbreviated PDS, a news show where DeFranco presents a news article, and then gives his opinion about it. His videos are centered on current events, sex, politics, and celebrity gossip in which he gives his opinion, usually presented in an ironic manner and with frequent jump cuts to create a fast-paced feel. He has over 1 billion views, and over 3 million subscribers, and is the 79th most subscribed YouTuber as of July 2, 2013. DeFranco started his YouTube channel in 2006. His large audience led to his winning of a Spore Creature Creator contest and Wired's Sexiest Geek of 2008 award, both open access online polls. DeFranco also created three other YouTube channels: PhilipDeFranco, a personal vlog-style channel, SourceFed, an original and Google funded YouTube channel and ForHumanPeoples. SourceFed spawned a spinoff channel, SourceFedNERD, as well. In 2013, DeFranco sold his channels to Discovery Digital Networks.[9]

Politically, he is a libertarian.[4] Additionally, DeFranco announced he would vote for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.[4][20] DeFranco has stated that he has used marijuana in the past. Defranco has stated, "Being the drug I occasionally use, and limit myself to is marijuana because like the worst thing that would happen is I get fat, pretty much impossible to O.D. on that drug, I asked those who are far more experienced in this avenue of drug use".[21] DeFranco has described his political views as, "fiscally conservative, socially liberal, for the most part."[22] He has also stated that he was raised in the Roman Catholic church, but in April 2013, he identified as an agnostic.[23] However more recently, on December 3, 2013, DeFranco stated he was an atheist.[5]

He currently lives with his fiancée, Lindsay Jordan Doty, his son Philip "Trey" DeFranco III, and their two Yorkshire Terriers, Rookie and Ace.[24] DeFranco proposed to Doty, then his longtime girlfriend, on August 16, 2013 at his "DeFranco Loves Dat AZ" show in Tempe, Arizona.[25] The proposal was set up by a question from the audience to Lindsay, asking if she thought she and DeFranco would ever marry. DeFranco responded by proposing to Lindsay on stage. Lindsay said "yes" just when her parents appeared on the stage. On October 8, 2013, DeFranco and Lindsay announced they were expecting their first child in April.[26][27] On October 16, they revealed the gender of their firstborn to be a son, and decided not to release his planned name. Their son Philip "Trey" DeFranco III was born on April 22, 2014.[6]

"You just got to make do with what you have. Have fun with it. Not overlook the good things in your life because you think of them as responsibilities. And that's what sometimes this fun thing feels like. This conversation, these outward thoughts, sometimes make me think of myself as a dancing monkey for the audience. That's actually why I've always had the monkey poster in the background, or the monkey intro. A lot of people have always wondered, 'cause I feel like we're all kind of dancing monkeys. Whether its for our jobs, our friends.

DeFranco began his YouTube career during his finals at East Carolina University when he created his sxephil YouTube channel.[14][29] He is notable for his staple show The PDS, in which he talks about newsie type stuff, and things that matter to him [today].[30]

Since his first video, he has amassed over three million subscribers to his videos, which he releases three to five times a week.[31][improper synthesis?]

There are approximately 70 old videos that are unlisted or private as DeFranco finds them too embarrassing.[32]

An online viewer census, from 2007, showed one third of his viewers are 16 and 17 year old girls.[8] In the same year, DeFranco opened his second YouTube channel, "PhilipDeFranco", which includes a series of vlogs which he calls "The Vloggity".[33] During August 2007, DeFranco conducted an experiment by uploading a video titled "Big Boobs and You", the videos thumbnail was just like the title, except it the image only flashed for split second. The rest of the video is DeFranco talking. It quickly became his most successful video at the time, with 1.8 million views. From then on he changed his content to sex, gossip, and news.[34]

DeFranco used his large audience to win the Spore Creature Creator, a game promotion competition, and in doing so beat the Sprouse twins. The winner's prize was to choose which charity would receive a donation of $15,000. He chose the PKD Foundation, an organization dedicated to fighting polycystic kidney disease (PKD), which he attributed to his family's history with the condition.[14] Defranco's large online audience also enabled him to win Wired's Sexiest Geek of 2008 competition, a reader voted contest.[35] "Someone sent it to me, and I was like, really?" says DeFranco.[14] "I kind of just promoted it because I thought it'd be funny for a normal guy to be at the top of the list."[35]

In 2009, he claimed in an interview to have a salary of over $250,000 from a number of sources on the Internet, not just YouTube, but later denied it in several videos.[14] In February 2012, DeFranco claims he pays himself $100,000 a year, and reinvests the rest back into his company.[36][37] He has been paid by companies to create videos to promote Carl's Jr.'s burgers,[38][39] and the US television series Lie to Me and Fringe.[40]

DeFranco was a founding member of The Station, but left only a few months after it was created.[36] DeFranco also launched Like Totally Awesome, (LTA) where video reviews submitted by viewers are compiled into a single video. Reviews submitted cover movie, video game or a piece of technology.[41] The show was run by Sarah Penna, the creator of the YouTube Multi-channel network, Big Frame.[42] Early in his YouTube career, Penna aided DeFranco, securing him coverage in news articles & magazines, such as Fast Company.[43][44]

DeFranco opened his personal channel, under the YouTube username, PhilipDeFranco, on September 19, 2007.[45] Initially, the channel was used for behind-the-scenes for his main series, but now it serves as a channel where DeFranco vlogs about life events, such as announcing his first child's then upcoming birth.[46]

In October 2008, DeFranco co-starred with Jessica Rose and Kevin Wu in Hooking Up, written and acted by Woody Tondorf as a promo from HBOLabs (the online arm of HBO). Hooking Up is a scripted 10-episode Web-based series set at a fictional university where the students spend most of their time emailing and using Facebook, but still manage to miscommunicate.[49]

By the show's second day on YouTube, it had received more than 450,000 views, which for the time was considered a success.[51][52] Bobbie Johnson of The Guardian said that many Web surfers had "scoffed at what they see as a cynical attempt to cash in."[53]

In May 2013, DeFranco's assets were acquired by Revision3, including The Philip DeFranco Show and SourceFed.[64] DeFranco became added as an exec of Revision3, the Senior VP of a new Revision3 subsidiary, Phil DeFranco Networks and Merchandise.[65] DeFranco spoke with Jon Erlichman about his partnership with Revision3 following the deal.[66] In October 2013, as part of his new network, DeFranco launched another channel, ForHumanPeoples.[67]

Three of six hosts of SourceFed (Left to right: Elliot Morgan, Lee Newton, Joe Bereta)

SourceFed is a channel launched by DeFranco and produced by James Haffner.[72][73][74][75]

DeFranco had The Philip DeFranco Show and SourceFed nominated for awards in the 3rd installment of the Streamy Awards. The PDS was nominated for Best First-Person Series and Best News and Culture Series. SourceFed was also nominated for Best News and Culture Series, as well as Best Live Series. SourceFed's #PDSLive 2012 Election Night Coverage was nominated for Best Live Event.[76]

DeFranco, along with SourceFed co-hosts, Elliott Morgan and Meg Turney, joined journalists at the 2012 Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention as part of YouTube's "Elections Hub".[16][77][78] A public relations representative for YouTube stated “Having awesome partners like Philip DeFranco involved will attract younger viewers and he will have a really fresh take on politics".[79] YouTube's "Election Hub" channels for major news networks only received several hundred views, whilst DeFranco's videos on Election Hub received tens of thousands. It was put down to it being in an 'experimental stage'.[80] Most of the partners of Election Hub, excluding DeFranco, Al Jazeera English and BuzzFeed, struggled to garner 1,000 views of their on-demand content during the RNC.[81]

In May 2013, DeFranco launched SourceFedNERD, a branch of SourceFed.[82]

DeFranco's merchandise line is ForHumanPeoples. The line's website was launched by DeFranco in 2011, two years before DeFranco launched a YouTube channel based on the clothing line. The channel is part of DeFranco's network.[83]

In October 2013, the FHP channel uploaded a video pairing Joe Bereta's daughter, Hayden Bereta, with designer Cory Nakamura, and the Generosity Water charity.[84] The video features Hayden Bereta drawing a superhero design, at the instruction of Elliott Morgan, which was then transferred into a shirt design, with proceeds from shirt sales going to the charity.[85]

^DeFranco, Philip (August 28, 2012). "Also for the 3 of...". Facebook. Retrieved November 23, 2012. DeFranco is what I started telling people when they kept butchering my real last name which is Franchini pronounced Fran-keeny.

^Defranco, Philip. The Weeks to Come (YouTube broadcast). Archived from the original on June 10, 2008. Retrieved October 29, 2009. Then you can help me out there, on phillyd.tv there's a little donation button if you want to help.[dead link]